As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As processors, graphics cards, random access memory (RAM) and other components in information handling systems have increased in clock speed and power consumption, the amount of heat produced by such components as a side-effect of normal operation has also increased. Such heat may be absorbed by other components of an information handling system, including an enclosure of the information handling system. As a result, an information handling system enclosure may reach a temperature that may become unsafe or uncomfortable for a user to handle, particularly for notebooks, laptops, handheld devices, and similar devices which are often used while being held by a user. For example, in some instances it is desirable to maintain a temperature of an information handling system enclosure below 55° C. for purposes of user comfort. Accordingly, systems and methods for managing heat transfer between heat-producing components of an information handling system and an enclosure thereof are desirable. Existing approaches require a closed loop control using dedicated enclosure temperature sensors to directly measure or infer surface temperature in order to thermally manage an information handling system. However, use of such dedicated sensors are often undesirable.